


Are We A Group Of Freaks Or Are We Friends?

by Shatterpath



Series: Pyramid [24]
Category: Power Rangers (2017), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Metahumans, Team as Family, no coins, part of a larger saga, pre-Trimberly - Freeform, some canon dialog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2018-06-07
Packaged: 2018-12-26 13:32:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12060018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shatterpath/pseuds/Shatterpath
Summary: What if the five teens that became the Power Rangers inhabited a different sort of universe? One where humanity was in the process of evolution, superpowers popping up in the population to wreak unique havocs. Will they still find one another? Still bond over their larger than life role?Let's find out.PS: Hello, Pyramid readers! I have been sneaking around, writing this side story for months now. As inspired by the surprisingly enjoyable Power Rangers movie in 2017, I have modified the teens to my own purposes and they will be included on many Pyramid exploits from here on out. Enjoy!Takes place between March 25th and 31st, 2017.





	1. Come Back

**Author's Note:**

> There is dialog and some situations lifted from the film, but their larger purpose will play out very differently. I'll be angling for at least strong hints of Trimberly, but have no idea how they will set the pace! Some things will be confusing here, but there are additional chapters to come that will flesh this out.

3/25/2017, a Saturday

 

The old mine was an irresistible draw to young souls unable to grow larger than the town that held them. Like water in a vessel, they could not push further than what contained them.

Even as they felt like they were suffocating.

Acting out, acting up, foolish and emotional and temperamental, adolescence was never easy, even for the strongest souls. But it was worse on some than others.

And they could never have believed why.

The silence and vast emptiness of the old gold mine grounds were a solace to a world grown too much for a teen who felt things not hers. It was a haven for a pair of unlikely friends who needed one another to face the inevitable course of events headed their way, the lonely rebel hiding from a future he couldn't face, and a girl who had ruined hers with an anger that had a will of its own. 

Five heartbeats slowly shifting to become one.

Breathing deep and slow, Trini was soothed by the racket of Revocation screaming in her ears. The discordant death metal seemed to shake out the mental debris that wasn't hers, let her really just be herself for the peaceful moments she could steal. Still, even here with only the quiet around her, Trini could still feel others too close. Curious eyes, a need to explore, to connect with those lost to them, a sharp, hungry hurt that called to her.

Still, Trini persisted, breathing long and slow, her body more at ease than her mind. She held the Tree Pose so long her muscles and joints burned and the sun sank lower and lower in the sky. There was no mistaking the dread that undid all of her meditating work; it was time to go home. Blowing out a hard breath, she dropped her arms and let her raised right foot slip down her left leg until she once more stood there like just an ordinary girl.

If only it were true.

Already late enough to get in trouble, Trini dawdled her way over the rocky, scrubby heights above the more active parts of the gold mine. The rumbles around town were that she was going to need a new hiding spot in a week when they blew out the ground beneath it. Just one more loss to add to all the others. Trini did her best to never get attached to anything.

There it was again, that itch of rage prickling across her emotional tapestry like insect feet. The shout of a guy's voice through the creases of rocky land zeroed in her more mundane perceptions, set her feet in motion almost against her will.

Curiosity was as dangerous to Trini as it was irresistible. 

It came from over by that deep pool at the south end of the oldest parts of the mine. Tailings had collected into a natural dam and it was isolated enough that it was rarely popular with more than the local chipmunks and deer.

But not always. 

Skidding to a halt amidst the tough pines grown wild at the watery spot, Trini gawked at the sight of a ethereal beauty in lacy purple lingerie casually wrapping herself in a towel. The guy that had been shouting looked nearly as nonplussed as Trini felt.

"I said it's strange to hear you say my name. Like we know each other."

With their voices no longer a jumble of sound from the rock all around them, Trini could make out the words, decipher the voices she found she knew.

"We do know each other," Jason Scott, the fallen king of football called back in confusion. And arrogant and seemingly uncaring as a cat, Kimberly Hart stepped around the landscape of trees, her voice indolent. 

"Oh, we know who each other are, but we don't really know each other."

There was an edge in Jason's voice now. "I know you used to date Ty Fleming. There's a rumor that you're the one who messed him up, but that doesn't really seem likely."

The blast of rage and terror that rippled out like an explosion made Trini gasp and sink down into a crouch, holding her head. Kimberly was powerful, a screaming hurricane of emotion that Trini instinctually reached out to soothe, pressing her strength of will against that storm. 

None of it registered in the physical world, Kim's voice still steady as she casually pulled her clothes back on. "Do you feel that?"

Jason sounded puzzled. "Feel what?"

Huddled into herself, Trini could not see their reactions, but the emotions clued her in as they always did now. Probably headshakes of confusion, no one in this world able to comprehend what Trini could do. She was trapped in her head with it and she barely believed it most days.

Still, the suffocating rage faded back a bit and Trini felt like she could breathe again. Their voices were moving away once more, counterpoint to the rustle of undergrowth and the breeze dancing in the branches above. Drawn to the storm despite herself, Trini ghosted along in their wake.

"So, what are you doing up here?" Kim asked where the former head jocks of the high school had stopped to overlook Angel Grove. "Did you follow me?"

Jason was a ripple of amusement, gentle against her storm. "I came with Billy."

Trini didn't know the name and Kim sounded completely taken aback. "Billy Cranston? Weird. But I've seen him up here before. Didn't figure you two for being friends, but go you." Breathing deeply, she turned her face into the breeze from the Pacific Ocean, a wall of darkness on the other side of town. When she spoke again, her voice was soft, almost vulnerable, drawing in her audience. "My house is on the other side of the mountain. I hike these trails sometimes to clear my head. And I stare down at Angel Grove and wonder how such a small crap town… can cause me such misery."

The faint heat of amusement radiated out from Jason to Trini and Kim looked sharply at him.

"That's funny to you?"

"No, I just… I feel the same way."

Now Kim was being sarcastic, a grating sensation. "Yeah. Jason Scott, the star quarterback crashes and burns. Destroys his career and destroys our season. Go, Tigers!"

Oddly, he remained passively calm, clearly expecting it. Resigned to it. "Now I walk around town, and everyone's looking me like I ran over their dog."

"So why don't you leave? You know, just go. I can leave here, you know?" She was aggressive, confrontational, hurting. Trini didn't need her impossible sensitivities to hear that. Jason by contrast still sounded almost playful.

"Where?"

"God, anywhere."

Trini ached along with that desperation to be away from the things here that suffocated her.

"So let's go." Now Jason was the confrontational one and Trini smiled a bit to herself where she'd hunkered down to rest her weary muscles. 

"You would never do it."

"Try me."

As the other teens grew more confrontational and sort of angry flirting about a van, Trini's attention wandered. There were others closer now, clearer to her perceptions now that Kim's strange rage was focused.

"So let's go," Jason taunted and that clearly got Kim's hackles up.

"Are you daring me? 'Cause I'll go."

There was no response as the rocks and sky shook with an explosion.

The jocks were off like a pair of sprinters, Jason keeping his own despite being in a car accident just three weeks ago. Caught completely off guard, it took Trini a long moment to scrabble to her feet and grab her backpack. There was no way she could keep up with their long, athletic strides, but she could sure as hell follow! 

Trini had always liked cats. They were fascinating in the way they moved and the way they found the high ground and watched like they knew something you didn't. For years she'd begged her mother for one for a pet, back when she had been a normal kid, happy and carefree. Now, she contented herself with taking a higher path than the jocks, wanting the feline vantage point.

There wasn't much to see in the dust, her perceptions registering a jumble of alarm and protectiveness and amusement. Finally a voice she didn't know rose above the babble

"I was just trying to dig a little deeper! Y'know, trying to quiet the noise in my head!" 

"With an explosion?" Jason yelled in exasperation laced with affection.

"Maybe I dug too deep huh?"

"Billy, you don't have to yell. We can hear you, okay?"

"Okay!"

Alarm was seeping in from the outside, a warning Trini knew better than to ignore. "Hey!" she shouted and the others looked up in shock where she stood over them on a lip of raw rock exposed by the mining. "You guys looking to get busted or something? This place is a restricted area."

The last of the dust finally settled and she recognized the fourth person on the mine floor. "Oh really, Einstein? Restricted? As in we shouldn't be standing on a crazy rock doing some Karate kid moves, right?"

Trini didn't know who he was, the grinning Asian guy who had joined this weird little party, but she had seen him before. And her annoyance was clear in her voice when she taunted down at him. "Yeah or camping out on old trains. I seen you too, homeboy."

Irritatingly, he looked delighted at her sass, neither of them noting Jason's distracted warning. "Guys… there's a lot of mine security out tonight."

That registered in Trini's mind even as the rock shelf beneath her feet shuddered. Billy's shout came too late. "Watch out!"

With a burst of rock spray and a terrifying rumble, the ground shattered away beneath Trini's feet. Instinct screamed at her to just get the hell away from the danger, her body rolling away from the crush the instant something solid touched her feet.

By sheer dumb luck, the collapse had tossed her to the edges of the debris field, where Trini lay gasping and winded. The others were asking after one another's safety, she and… Zack? Was that his name? They were the outsiders and Trini was shocked at a strong hand that touched her upper arm.

"Are you okay?"

In the scant light of the night sky and distant mining activity, Kim's features were a shadowy blur, but Trini remembered too well the popular beauty who had ruled the school until she had all but vanished a few days ago. Biology hadn't been quite so interesting since. Shaking off her unwelcome fascination, Trini rolled to a sitting position, already getting her feet under her, no matter how shook up she was.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

She was anything but fine, the warm imprint of Kimberly Hart's hand on her arm like a brand. 

"Guys, do you hear that?" Jason asked and Zack almost laughed as he scrambled away.

"Mine security. Peace!"

Perhaps sarcasm wasn't the best way to make herself memorable to her peers, but Trini was fiercely rattled and feeling vulnerable. That was reflected in her voice as she backed away from a curious, concerned Kim. "Someone should have pointed that out. Wait, I did."

And they broke like startled pigeons in all directions, desperate to get away from consequences and retaliation. Not built to be a sprinter, Trini was better at endurance, riding out the burn of muscle and lung as her body worked hard. To her astonishment, Kim pulled past her, waving at her to keep up, a wild grin on her shadowed face.

Vehicle headlights swung crazily in the darkness and tires bit at muddy ground. Down a high ridge of mine tailings the girls fled, desperate to find a way out. An ugly white minivan was their unexpected savior, Jason ginning as he threw open the side door. "Get in!"

Kim tossed herself over his legs without hesitation, her natural athleticism making the maneuver almost graceful. For the first time since fourth grade, Trini almost wanted to ditch the comfort of her beloved backpack in exchange for getting the hell out of there. Thankfully, Jason grabbed her by said backpack and tossed her into the van before slamming the sliding door shut. In an ungainly heap at his feet, Trini sorted out her limbs and braced herself to get her butt in the seat.

"What about the other guy?" Billy asked where he was fighting with the steering wheel. The other three teens just looked at each other and Trini didn't need her weird powers to yell in sync with the jocks.

"Just go!"

Accidentally clipping a support post for a massive chunk of mine machinery sent it crashing to the road behind them, buying the fleeing teens some time from their pursuers. It felt like the first moment any of them could even try to catch their breath, hearts beating like a rock band, discordant and urgent.

Then Trini noticed something very, very important, pointing with a shaky hand.

"Guys… it's the train."

The nightly passenger train was a single spear of light and lines of brightly lit windows and running lights, racing through the darkness. 

Their collective alarm was abruptly diverted by something landing heavily on the van's roof, the buckling steel nearly smacking Jason in the head. They all gawked in shock as Zack appeared at the top of the windshield, yelling incoherently.

In that exact moment, one lunatic having dented a steel roof like a boulder and seeming to be unharmed, trapped in an aging minivan racing an oncoming train and surrounded by strangers, Trini had to wonder how the hell her day had gone so wrong.

"Man, what do you want me to do?" Billy yelled, fighting for control of the van and Jason went for the door again, wind rushing around his voice. 

"Keep going, I'll pull him in!" Somehow, the feat was managed, Zack slithering off of the roof to land in an undignified heap at the feet of the others. "Are you crazy?"

Even battered by too many emotions, Trini could feel the sense of exhilaration that poured off Zack in giddy waves. "Yeah, I am."

Zack was forgotten in the blinking lights of the railroad crossing looming larger and larger as they sped off of the mountain. 

"There's the crossing," Jason cheered and patted his buddy in encouragement. "That's the way out, Billy. You got it."

"I hope he has it," Kim added tensely and Trini startled. She'd forgotten the other girl was even there in the adrenaline soaked moments ticking past. Looking over at her reminded Trini how gorgeous Kim was, but the glare of oncoming train in her eyes ruined the moment. 

"He definitely doesn't have it," she mourned almost calmly, eyes blown out to alarmed black where she stared into Kim's wide gaze.

"I got it, I got it!"

Everything seemed to slow, the train's light filling the entirety of the side windows, backlighting Kim into a black shadow, burning into Trini's eyes. Their collective screaming was swallowed up by the roar of air horns, the rush of speed as the van and train plowed through the California night.

The van was tossed like a boat on the angry ocean, dancing about and tossing its occupants around roughly. And then…

And then…

It was over.

With the rear end calming from its wild fishtail, the van settled placidly beneath Billy's death grip, his knuckles paler than his dark skin. 

The van was as quiet as the grave all the way back to the electric lights of town. It was almost as though they were all afraid to do more than breathe, terrified they would break the spell and be back in front of the train once more.

The instant Trini's dazed mind recognized a cross street, her animal brain took over, body in motion the moment the van slowed for a stop sign. In an instant, the cries of her companions just rising up, Trini had the door yanked open and fled like a wild thing into the darkness.

She never even noticed that she had left her backpack behind.


	2. The Way Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trini makes it home, but she doesn't really feel like she's in one piece exactly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! It's been awhile. In fact, it's more than 4 months! Ouch. Sometimes, it takes awhile for the muses to figure out what they want. Writing this part gave me a better feeling of where it's going to go, so hopefully updates will be more regular now. We'll see!

Sunday 3/26/2017

 

It was unadulterated panic.

Like a fog, it engulfed the whole neighborhood, crept into the quiet streets of Angel Grove. The voices raised in anger, the cries of nightmares, the cacophony of it battered at Trini's mind in a vicious feedback loop until she was screaming along with it all.

She didn't even notice she was hitting herself until the pain started breaking though the panic attack. Winded and cramping from head to toe, she lay in the grass of her backyard in a muzzy haze of pain and raw exhaustion. 

No one came for her, screams lost in the near-riot conditions around her, none more obvious than her own mother. Like any child, Trini was terrified of her mother's wrath, of her condemnation and fear, particularly when she felt it as keenly as a naked blade against the powers she hated. 

There would be no calm for June this night, Trini knew that. Facing the music was going to be an uglier proposition than usual and she was so exhausted she wanted to just lay here and die with it.

The arrival of the police gave her an idea, an out to let her survive another day. Not brushing herself off, Trini stumbled over the fence and through the neighbor's yard to circle around and wander into the reach of flashing lights and barely contained fear and violence barely faded away from her breakdown.

Oh, how she hoped no one had been hurt…

When she spun a tale to the startled police officers about being jumped and mugged, her backpack stolen, they took down what little information she could bullshit and kindly walked her to her door. Shock blasted away much of her mother's panic at what lay on the other side of the heavy knock at the door at one o'clock in the morning.

Trini ignored all of what anyone said to her, of the clawlike death grip her mother marched her off to bed with, the harsh words that barely registered any more.

Sleep was the only solace she had.

\----

Monday 3/27

 

Astonishingly, Trini had been left alone for nearly the entirety of Sunday, barely able to rouse herself to eat a bit and use the restroom a couple times. She felt like she'd been beaten, muscles tight and cramping from her insane night, head feeling like it was going to split clean open.

Monday arrived with all the welcoming joy of a hovering vulture. And as she was still breathing and both legs worked, it was off to school with her. Wearily scrubbed up and with a new phone roughly shoved into her hands, Trini drudged out to the bus, feeling naked and exposed without the comforting weight of her backpack.

She didn't even bother to try and explain missing books and homework, just kept her head down and radiated a wall of 'leave me alone'. The technique had gotten good with practice, so much so that she could get through whole semesters with even the teacher barely knowing she was there. Only the most engaged and determined could get through. Most were like her dad, detached to the point where she was pretty sure he barely cared any more.

Only one thing broke through the haze. She spotted Kimberly Hart striding across the student parking lot, fiddling with keys and climbing into her white coupe. Yeah, the view alone would have at least garnered some interest, but that wasn't what set Trini to a aching jog after the taller girl.

It was the familiar backpack slung over her shoulder alongside a stuffed duffel bag.

But she was too sore and slow to catch up, watching the coupe drive away. How had she not even noticed during biology? How had Kimberly not seen her? Given the bag back? Was this some sadistic power play?

Or did she really just disappear far too effectively?

With no clue where to even start, Trini figured the mine was her only chance. Though just getting there was going to suck. And did she really want to take a chance of setting off another crazy spell at home? As much as it pained her to put off retrieving her things from Hart and maybe figuring out what the hell had happened on Saturday, home won out.

Her mom looked surprised to see her walk in from the bus on time, book bag in hand. For an endless moment they just stared at one another, feeling the yawning chasm of emotional distance between them.

"Homework?"

"Yes. And I have to replace what was in my backpack."

"Okay. I'll call you for dinner."

"Okay."

It was a tensely civil exchange, nitroglycerine not shaken too hard. Compared to how a lot of days went, Trini was grateful for the reprieve and headed upstairs to her room. Homework would not vanish just because her life was insane.

Because it was Monday, that meant a light dinner early, pretty much as soon as her father walked through the door. The twins had soccer and would need to be fueled up. So as soon as she heard Dad's car, Trini steeled herself, wrapped calm about her as best she could, and crept downstairs.

There were days when the chaotic energy of the twins drove Trini nuts, but they could also be an effective shield to her mother's attention. Feeling the sting of the way her parent's tried to ignore the rough emotional waters, she subtly egged on her brother's high energy. After that, Mom couldn't hustle them off fast enough to go run off some of that energy.

"Gonna go look for my bag," she mumbled to her father, barely waiting for his hum of acknowledgement.

Time to pay attention to that insistent tug that she go back to the mine.

After a bus ride and a long, painful hike that at least knocked some of the soreness out of her muscles, Trini crouched in some brushy cover and watched as sunset pulled the shadows long. That weirdo from the abandoned train had been down there when she arrived, clanking around the shattered rock face like he was looking for something. So she stayed hidden and observed, wondering at how the sunlight glinted off the exposed stone like it was glass.

The cat perch let her see the approach of the other teens that had been in the van and she vibrated with wanting to go jump on Hart and get her stuff back. But she couldn't even tell if the bag was with her, and had no idea what had drawn the five of them here in the first place, much less why they were all here again.

"Find anything interesting?" Jason bellowed and the crazy guy turned to yell back.

"If I do, I'm keeping it!"

"You're Zack, right?" Kim called out, starting towards the guy.

"Yup."

Well at least she had that confirmed now.

"You still go to Angel Grove?" Jason picked the thread back up as he followed his fellow jock.

"Sometimes!" Zack's voice was mirthful, uncaring, but Trini could feel the fear and stress roll off of him in waves. It was disconcerting how well he hid it. "The other girl was here too about an hour ago."

That took Trini completely by surprise. How had he known? So much for her vaunted stealth skills…

If she jetted down that same ridge that partially collapsed Saturday, she could hit that slope and be up it before the others could catch her.

Trini hated being caught out.

Still, she paused, saw how the others instantly focused on her, felt their curiosity and eagerness.

"Hey! Come on down!" Jason yelled after her, but Trini was already in motion. The slope was a little steep, but she could four wheel drive it up and be gone before they could catch her. She wanted her bag, but it wasn't worth the attention of these strangers and the foghorn blast of their emotions.

But she hadn't counted on the determination of Zack-in-black and a stubborn ex-cheerleader. Of course panic sent her feet the wrong way and she skidded to a halt at the edge of a rocky drop that was proof why the mine didn't want dumb teens wandering around.

"Hey! Hey, seriously, hold up."

It was Hart, breathing hard but not winded by the climb at American Ninja speeds and Trini half turned to watch her warily. 

"What's up, crazy girl?" Zack probably thought he was being charming or flirty or some idiotic thing like that. Waving him back, Kim straightened up, hands open and away from her body. Like she was approaching a wild animal.

Even as part of Trini bristled at that… she had a point.

"Look, no one is gonna make you do anything. I just wanted to return your bag."

Shrugging, Kim loosened the dark blue bag from her shoulders where the black straps had blended in with her jacket. No sound, just a raised brow and the pack held out in one hand. Still, Trini hesitated at what felt like a power play. Not that she minded as much as her scowl might say, because Kimberly Hart was a looker. Distractingly so.

"I refilled your water bottle. Stole the last of it, and thought that was the least I could do."

When she didn't release the bag after Trini finally minced over and grabbed it, the power play suspicions were confirmed. There was something faintly predatory in that beautiful smile, something that matched the rage Trini could feel in her like heat radiating from a hidden fire.

"How old are you, five?" she growled and then fake simpered, "Hi, I'm Kimberly and everybody loves me."

The strap was dropped fast enough that Trini had to take a step back to save herself from falling on her ass. Those arm muscles weren't just for show, clearly. Stepping back again, Trini flinched from the awakened rage in the other girl. What was with her anyway? Jason arrived then, Billy hot on his heels.

"I knew we'd all find ourselves back here. Glad to see you're alright, though you look like you got thrown around worse than the rest of us."

Only then did Trini remember hurting herself, trying to beat back her panic with her own fists and the hearty grass sawing into her skin. Swallowing hard to give herself a moment to gain control of the 'push', she nodded shortly and just wished she could escape. But the other teens had cut off all exits with the alternative being a deadly drop to the stones below.

Eagerly, a little too eagerly for Trini's tastes, Zack stepped up and asked, "who exactly are you?"

"Her name is Didi."

"Trini," she growled at Kim. Really, her ability to vanish was too good sometimes. Kim kept talking as though she hadn't heard the irritable correction.

"She's new at school transferred in a month ago. We have English together, right?"

That was too much and Trini's reply was so thick with sarcasm it was nearly visible. "I've been in Angel Grove for over a year now. We have Biology together. Good talk."

Before she could find a way to bolt, Jason half jumped in front of her. This was the wild card and he knew it. "Wait, look. None of us really know each other, okay? But somehow, we were all in the same place at the same time when Billy blew up that cliff face. I don't buy it being a coincidence."

The others looked startled when it was Trini who nodded, admittedly with some reluctance.

"The rest of you can feel it too, can't you? That we're all different. And not in a normal teen way, either."

Again, it was Trini that nodded, Billy almost in sync with her, Kim and Zack half shrugging and half nodding along.

"So, are we like a club now?" Billy questioned and clapped like a little kid. "Welcome to the club!"

Even the pissy little cat had to smile and just like that, the ice was broken.


	3. And Know Me Better

Monday 3/27/2017

 

Ice broken or not, none of the five were entirely certain what to do with one another. Just as things were about to wander into 'awkward', Zack spoke up. "Hey, guys. Look, Imma stay up here tonight, make a fire. I got some food, if you guys wanna stay."

Bizarrely, they all looked to Trini again and she fought down the urge to bristle. She wasn't used to being… included. But she couldn't deny that she was drawn to the rest of them and was curious as, well, a cat. 

"I'm down."

Zack's relief was obvious and he barely managed to play it down. "Alright. Cool."

They snuck deep into the oldest parts of the mine where the weathered stones protected them from prying eyes and a raging fire of scrap wood kept the chilly night at bay. Subjects had been neutral as they took tentative steps to start getting to know one another, loosened up a bit with a shared six-pack of beer from Zack's stash of goodies.

"Billy, how'd you do it? How'd you beat the train?" Jason abruptly asked and the laughter around him stilled. Apparently they had reached the serious part of the evening.

Billy was clearly uncomfortable, but not so much that he didn't have a ready answer. "Umm… You'll think I'm crazy."

Jason's smile was surprisingly sweet. "I think it's pretty obvious that we've got some real sci-fi shit going in with this crowd, buddy. Try us."

"I don't know. Sharing never seems to go well for me."

"But we were all drawn together for some reason. You guys can all feel it. "

It was Kim that broke in with a goofy, otherworldly voice as low as she could pull her voice. "You have a greater destiny."

"Okay, Yoda, good one," Jason said sarcastically and Billy jumped in with a 'sage, wise man' ponderous tone.

"Think only of each other and all roads will open to you."

"Yeah, that's better," Kim conceded and flopped back down to her makeshift seat against a log.

"Maybe it's 'cause we don't know each other," Zack jumped in. "Maybe that's why we can't figure out what brought us together."

"Okay." Kim's doubt was an echo of the rest of them, except for a clearly still-eager Jason.

"No, I'm serious, let's do this for real." Jumping up, Zack drew himself up proudly and spoke just as importantly. "I am Zack and I am a freak."

"Hi, Zack," the girls playfully chorused back.

Gentling, he stared into the flames, his voice soft. "I live in the Melody mobile home park. It's just me and my mum. And my mom?" Abruptly, he yelled out loudly enough to echo off the stones, "my mom is the best!" Flopping down into his chair like a young man with his strings cut, the tears in his eyes told more of the story than even his words. "But my Mom, she's sick. I do what I can… but I'm scared. Sometimes I get too scared to stay the night, because I'm afraid she can't make it. And if she goes…" his voice grew ever softer and more vulnerable. "When she goes… I got nobody else."

As though he suddenly realized just how much he'd opened up, Zack sat up and his voice roughly tried to go back to normal.

"I think being with other people is good for me. And, I don't seem to get hurt. Ever. And not just the usual stupid shit, but crazy shit like jumping off high buildings and chainsaws. Nothing hurts me. And it's sorta, y'know… freaky."

There was no sound outside of wind and fire for long moments. One would except at least a scoff or something to such an outrageous statement. But Jason had been right about all of them. So Billy broke in to the charged quiet. "Let's do that. Let's tell our secrets. it will help us. Okay, I got a secret. I like country music."

"What?" the girls chorused again, a mix of amusement and disbelief.

"As a matter of fact, I love country music. I don't… miss my dad so much. He's been dead now, seven years four months and… four days? He used to work up here at the mine and we would sneak in and find objects together. Some really, really old. Almost like that show American Pickers.

"It felt like coming to the mine with him was all I had. He knew about what I could do, that's how we started coming up here. See, I can talk to machines, I have no better words to describe it. The simpler the machine, the easier it is to communicate, but, oddly, the harder it is to persuade it to do something. I practice on padlocks and computers, just to see how well I can do it and--"

"Billy," Jason broke in gently. "The van?"

"Oh, right! So yeah, that's how I got the van to give me just a little extra power, and I might have slowed down the train just a little bit. It all happened pretty fast. When my dad died, I didn't have anyone that knew that I was different. My mom would worry, y'know? She's got enough with me being on the spectrum and she's done great, but it can be challenging for both of us, but we've both done great and I can do stuff now like come out here with you guys, even though I don't know you. So, yeah, coming to the mine with you guys is just as good."

Satisfied with the whole ramble, Billy smiled into the fire and the others soaked up his words. Already, they could feel the threads of connection becoming more than weird coincidence, desperation, a need to belong. Maybe they could be more.

"Biggest secret is why are you in detention," Jason asked into the charged quiet.

"I blew up my lunch box."

They all chorused in various tones, "what?"

"But it was an accident! My lunch box was in my locker. Boom goes the lunch box, in detention goes Billy. But let's not forget that Kimberly Hart was also in detention too so…"

As attention shifted, one didn't have to be an empath to see her panic, written large in her eyes and expression.

"Not tonight. Skip me."

It wasn't a shock that it was Jason that jumped in again, but the edge of confrontational beneath his seemingly careless words was unexpected.

"Yeah, speaking of you, Kimberly, I went and visited Ty. The guy's an asshole, but I've been in football alongside him since second grade, y'know? Weird that I decided to go today, because out of nowhere, he just bolted awake, screaming about a monster. I was the only one in the room for a few moments before the staff rushed in, but he still managed to rip off the crappy gown thing and half the bandages across his chest. You were lucky to get away from whatever mauled him."

Trini could feel the rage wanting loose, Kim almost panting with the effort. There was definitely more story there. Almost without thinking, she reached out, pushing gently with her powers to give Kim a hand controlling whatever it was that she was keeping under control. For a moment, it fought back, her whole frame seeming to get dark and shimmery, before she was suddenly just a teenage girl again, sitting back and catching her breath. She rubbed at watering eyes and met Trini's dark gaze squarely, giving her a nod.

Definitely interesting.

Zack broke in on the silent, weighty exchange. "What about you dude? Why don't you tell us who you really are?"

Jason let himself be distracted, arms opening in a encompassing gesture somehow both sarcastic and hurting.

"Because everyone knows exactly who I am. But not really. They know what they see, or what they want to see. I broke down and sabotaged myself because I couldn't take it anymore. Standing out on that field, just knowing what everyone was gonna do moments before they did it, always having to be crazy careful driving because I could never tell if I was reacting to what was happening or what was going to happen. Not being able to stop horrible shit before it happened…"

Scrubbing roughly at his face, Jason turned half away to compose himself and Zack shifted his attention once more.

"Okay. What about you, crazy girl?"

"I could tell you anything and you would have to believe me." The sass earned her a wall of flat stares that had Trini backing down on the attitude. Leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees, she gathered her composure and wondered if she even had it in herself to be honest anymore. "Okay. I'm the new girl. Always. Three schools in three years. I like it that way, it's just easier. Nobody ever has to get to know me… And my parents don't have to worry about my relationships."

"Boyfriend troubles?" Zack asked and didn't miss how Trini flinched as she slouched back into her seat and sucked down the last dregs of beer.

"Yeah. Boyfriend troubles." The words hurt to say and the twist of sarcasm hid a deeper hurt.

"Girlfriend troubles?"

For a guy who put himself out there as a goofy, sarcastic jerk, he was pretty astute and Trini stared hard into the fire for long moments before sitting up and doing her best to talk normally. No easy task with trying to keep herself calm and not to shake with nerves. Not to mention protect the other four from what she could do.

"So, Can't-be-hurt, Talks-to-machines, Mystery-rage-issues, Sees-the-future, and me. Me? I can feel other people's emotions, like hearing different sounds, or seeing colors. Can push back too, sometimes, when I'm in control of myself, which is a bitch sometimes. It's relentless. Every moment of every day, everyone pressing in on my head until I want to scream from it all. 'Til I wonder when I'm gonna just disappear into the noise."

In the fog of soft empathy she got from the others, for the first time since the emotional noise had started to drive her insane, Trini felt just a little bit safe. And for the first time in so long it felt foreign to her, she felt safe enough to let just a little bit of what she was to show.

"My family is so normal. Too normal. They believe in labels. They'd like for me to… dress differently. Talk more. Have the kinds of friends they want me to have. I don't know how to tell them what's really going on with me. And I've never said any of this out loud."

There were a lot of feelings in the quiet that fell over the group, broken by Billy's gentle cheerfulness. "Well, it's cool. You're with us now."

"Am I?" Trini's pointed question pulled the others up short. "What does that mean? Are we just a group of freaks or are we friends?"

No one had a good answer for that.

\----

Each lost in their own vulnerabilities, the teens quietly gathered their things and cleaned up, stomping out the fire after throwing plenty of dirt over it. None of them wanted to leave Zack behind, but none of them felt like they could interfere with him either. It was a strange grey area between strangers and friends they were all standing in.

When Kim quietly offered a ride, Trini nodded silently and climbed into the back with Billy. A few curt directions had them near her house.

"Hey, this is near where that riot almost broke out early Sunday morning."

Billy's innocent observation got a blast of alarm that shook everyone in the car, Trini mumbling an apology and bailing out as the car slowed. Really, she just needed to stay the hell away from people in general…

Too distracted to sneak around, she merely headed home, but paused on the front walk at the sound of her parent's raised voice carrying from inside the house.

"Honey, what's wrong? Why are you so angry?"

"I don't know! She's driving me crazy, all this skulking around and never talking! What happened to my sweet little girl who could tell me anything? Now every time I get anywhere near her, I feel like my heart is being twisted and I get so crazy!"

Trini was frozen there on the other side of the front door.

"I don't even want to go up there and check in on her! Just to see if she's even there! What sort of horrible parent does that make me? I feel like I can't even physically get near her any more without losing my mind!"

And in that moment, it finally struck home.

Trini had at least partially brought this on herself.

By being able to project her own feelings, she had set up a violent feedback loop of negative emotions with her mother.

The wail of grief and anger from inside the house was proof enough of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the transition to the bonfire gave me some hassle, because the scenes where they bond over Zordon and the failure to morph, etc, does not happen. Thankfully, Zack provided the easy answer by simply using the canon scene of his offering food and time to the others. Sometimes, the obvious can in fact, be the answer. :)


	4. A New Direction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trini has no idea how these strangers have changed her so much, so fast, but there's no denying it.
> 
> And it might be just in the nick of time.

It took some time for the shaking to subside, to force any semblance of calm so that she could skulk into the house and creep upstairs. For a long time she lay there in the darkness, the streetlamps illuminating her windows. Eventually, the house settled into sleep and she could wearily get up and do what she knew she had to do.

Like any teen, running away passed through her mind. A lot. With these outbursts of her stupid and unwanted superpower, she was beginning to wonder if running away wouldn't save her family. It felt inevitable that something was going to go catastrophically wrong. 

Bad enough the walls of stress and confusion that were her parents, but the tangle of childish hopes and fears that were her brothers? What was she doing to them? Yes, she had to get away from the only people in the world she had little defense 

She'd been saving up money here and there for ages, and she knew where her folks kept a decent stash of cash for emergencies. With a quiet touch and a flashlight, she went through her wardrobe, keeping a wide spread of layers, none of it eye-catching. Except for a few things she rubbed between her fingers, wanting the memory… or the armor of it.

She had to be ruthless, packing and repacking a large backpack and an old military duffel bag until she felt like she could just force herself to walk away from the rest of it. An old skateboard strapped to the side of the big duffel would help move it because she was going to stagger under its weight.

Both bags were shoved into the closet and a couple pairs of shoes negligently tossed in front of them to make them look like they weren't out of place. It would take seconds to grab them and heave them out the window, anything breakable padded carefully in the clothing.

It felt like a long time passed while she stared at the bags, really felt what they represented. She didn't want to do this… but what other choice did she have? No one would believe her, and even if they did… then what? With no more answers than she'd ever had, Trini turned to her final task. Quietly dumping out her favorite backpack, last clenched in Kimberly Hart's fist, she sorted through everything, keeping the barest necessities and a few special items. Then, to her desk for what would hopefully be the last piece of the puzzle.

When Trini had been very small, before brothers and frightening superpowers, she had gotten into an old box at her grampa's house. In it were photo albums, ratty with age, and piles of a child's things; sports awards and drawings and scraps of homework and small toys.

Innocently curious, she looked at the pictures, of a much younger Grampa and a lady with beautiful brown skin and shiny black hair and a smile that could light up the world. And in the pictures were not one… but two little girls. Slender and swarthy and happy, one tall and shy, one small and wild, there were dozens and dozens of pictures of them at play, eating meals, doing normal and amazing things. Some of them were too wonderful to resist and she picked them out of their protective plastic to admire them. Was the tall one her mommy? She was just old enough to sort of understand the concept that people aged and changed, but this was a bit of a leap for her.

'Junie and Maggie- 91' Read one the back of one of them, the girls not much different than herself. With the innocent curiosity and forgetfulness of any small child, she tucked her favorites into the front of her bib overalls and kept looking. There were a variety of toys there and she grabbed several she liked, tucking them away in pockets.

A scream from the unwelcome presence of a spider had sent the grownups running for her, but Grampa reacted in a way her young mind had no context for.

He yelled at her, eyes wild as he ripped the photo album out of her hands.

He yelled at her as though she had done something truly awful, her childish fear from a scary bug turned to terror as someone she loved and trusted turned into a monster.

Later, at home, she'd sniffled and cried in the bathroom, unloading her new treasures into the trashcan where no one could ever see them again. But later, calm and warm in her bed, something made her creep back and retrieve it all. 

She learned a lesson that day and carefully hid the treasures away where no one could ever find them. Now sixteen and feeling her world crumbling around her, Trini dug out the old metal lunch box from the back of her desk and set it out. There were more bits and pieces of information she'd gleaned over the years, curious about her mother's missing sister, and her grandfather's sister he hadn't spoken to in years. She'd only timidly asked her mother about it once and the look on her face had been chilling.

"There are some things families don't talk about, Trini. Now, how is your homework coming?"

It would be years before she understood what her grandfather's frightful anger and her mother's coldness had been about. The missing sister was like her, a pervert and abomination for liking other girls. Fear of a revisit of that wrath kept her silent and fearful, but her needs would not go away.

\----

A scratch of sound woke Trini abruptly, something disquieting and out of place. The shadowy figure on her windowsill earned a blast of alarm that nearly knocked them right back out of her room before the familiarity registered.

"Kim!" she gasped and the other girl shook herself out and finished climbing carefully over the cluttered desk.

"It's me."

Heart racing, Trini dropped flat for a moment to catch her breath and gather her wits. "Christ on a cracker, Hart, you scared the shit out of me."

"So I feel."

The almost matter-of-fact tone was irritating, but Trini had an edge. She could feel what was underneath.

"How did you get in here?"

"I can turn into a fifteen foot cloud of rage and claws. Oh, and you left your window open."

Okay, that threw her off. "Oh."

Resigned and agitated, Kim sat on the edge of Trini's bed and stared at her hands, her whole posture screaming her discomfort as loudly as her mind. To save her own sanity, Trini pushed and some of the tension fled.

"God, that feels good, just to have a little of it blunted off. Thank you." Breathing deep, Kim took a second to compose herself. "Look, I couldn't keep lying when the rest of you were being honest."

"Okay."

"I beat Ty Fleming nearly to death, because he hauled off and smacked me one after telling everyone I was the meanest person he ever met. And he was right."

Despite this girl being a complete stranger, Trini found herself defending her. "I doubt it."

Again, Kim paused, her night-dark eyes almost looking fiery in the gloom. Fishing out her phone, she tapped at it before turning it to Trini. "Okay."

The porny cheesecake photo there was not at all what Trini would have expected. "Whoa!"

"Yeah."

"You took that picture?" 

It certainly upped the interesting levels of this hot cheerleader turned badgirl. 

"No. Amanda Clark took that picture, of herself. But she shared it with me privately. She trusted me."

"And you sent that pic to Ty? The son of a bitch who hit you?"

"With a text that said, 'Is this the girl you wanna bring home to your mom?' I didn't know how mean it was until I saw her face."

It didn't require superpowers to see how the event had wrecked her.

"Kim, there is literally thousands of photos going around school."

Agitated, Kim jumped to her feet and Trini pushed to be soothing so that her voice didn't rise and wake her family. "I don't care about them. I care about this. I did this! I had to sit in Mr. Detmer's office with Amanda's father… and watch as they showed him the photo of his daughter." Defeated, she slumped back to the bed, head hanging. The creak of the old bed set Trini's teeth on edge. "In his eyes for the first time I could see who I would become. You know, so I lied. I blamed everyone else. I wanted to die, that's why…" she paused to clear her throat of swallowed tears. "When Jason asked me to run away, I was ready. I know you were there, I didn't know what that pressure was on my anger at the time, but I recognize it now. And… thanks. That thing you said about it being relentless? Yeah, I get that. All too well."

An edge of peacefulness settled over them and Trini reached out to tap the edge of the phone.

"Okay, listen. Start over. Erase that picture right now."

"Trini, it can't be erased."

"Then live with it! You did an shitty thing, but that doesn't make you a shitty person. Just be the person you wanna be."

For a long moment, Kim just stared at Trini, expression unreadable. When she lunged forward, Trini honestly had no idea what was going to happen to her, but a suffocating hug, Kim's head tucked into her neck, was not it. Awkwardly, she raised her hands as best she could in the clutch and patted at Kim's side.

"I get so caught up in my own shit, in trying to make it seem like I have this perfect life, that I'm turning into a whole different sort of monster," Kim whispered and reluctantly pulled back to look soberly into Trini's face. "I mean, I didn't even remember which class of mine you were in, much less your name."

"I'm good at fading back. Don't be so hard on yourself."

"Still. I'm really glad I met you, Trini. I better get out of here before I wake your fam up. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course."

\----

Tuesday 3/28/17

 

With too little sleep under her belt, Trini stared at her reflection in the mirror, almost admiring the faint blush of bruises on her forehead, the thin parallel lines sliced into her skin. The exhausted red of her eyes helped the 'wasted waif' look oh so much. Well, she better get her ass in gear or get in trouble she didn't need.

In twenty minutes flat she was made up, eye drops in, dressed and was racing down the stairs.

"Late!" she yelled and rushed for the door to avoid yet another confrontation. Whatever her mother called after her was lost in the slam of heavy wood and Trini set up a punishing pace to where she knew she could still catch the bus a few blocks over. Heart rate up and head pounding like a drum, Trini acknowledged her fellow student's mumbled greeting and settled in to wait.

After a couple of quiet periods, the student body was in for their first break. Trudging across campus, Trini reflexively bristled and shied away as she was abruptly flanked by larger bodies. When she jerked her gaze up first to Jason's, then Kim's smiles, she tried not to question the flood of relief she felt.

"You look hungry, Trini, and not well rested," Kim said playfully and gave her a light bump with her arm.

"Every day should start with a decent meal. Every coach knows that," Jason chimed in and pulled his backpack around his body to poke through it. "Apple or cheese crackers? Both?"

Unable to stop the tug of a smile, Trini reached out and wrapped her hand around both. Jason made a triumphant sound and beamed smugly at Kim.

"Told you. I know my snacks."

Crunching hungrily into the apple while she wrestled with the plastic wrap on the crackers, Trini marveled at how weird this all was. Billy waved eagerly where he was sitting under a tree in the quad and the trio made a beeline for him.

No, Trini didn't know what all this was.

But she liked it.


	5. Who Is the Real Monster?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't realized I never put this chapter up! Things get intense here as events spiral out of control, so I'm putting a warning here for a middling level of violence, some of which comes from Trini's mother. Be safe everyone!

Feeling good about her day with her new friends, Trini found her home empty and settled in with her schoolwork. Maybe things would be better now that she wasn't alone? Looking over at the closet and her packed things, she debated with herself for long moments before turning back to her work.

Better safe than sorry for now.

Caught up in what she was doing, Trini didn't even notice time passing until a pounding at her door made her jump and grip her pencil hard enough that she heard the wood crack.

"Dinner!" her brothers chorused and there was the discordant drumbeats of their feet on the stairs. Heart beating hard, still as a cornered rabbit, Trini fought down the feeling of dread swamping over her. With clammy, trembling hands, she shrugged on her favorite bomber jacket, the shiny yellow fabric making her feel just a little bit braver, and crept down the stairs.

Oh to be her sweet and obnoxious little brothers, mostly oblivious to the tension thick in the room as Trini crept past her mother's chair and settled to her own. The sensation of being in the crosshairs made her skin crawl, the quiet around the table feeling like waiting for lightning to strike.

Picking at her food was doing her no favors, but appetite was hard in the atmosphere, her stomach clenched and crampy. 

Something was building… something ugly.

"So, how was school today? Were you with friends? Do you have any friends? Why are you so tired?"

The questions piled out of June abruptly, each more agitated than the last. Outwardly, Trini maintained her mask of indifference, but flinched like they were bullets. Amazingly, her dad actually jumped in, his voice soothing, but condescending.

"You did ask her four questions before she's even answered the first."

It pressed in on Trini like a suffocating grip.

"Because she's like a ghost around here. She needs to start communicating."

"June…"

"Say something! Speak! I just--"

June's agitation boiled over and her cut off shout and the smack on the table, made her daughter jump. For a moment, Trini envied her brothers, more curious than frightened. But more of her worried for them. Thinking there was anything normal about this was a lesson they might never unlearn.

"Relax," her dad coaxed to his agitated wife and once more turned to his daughter. "Okay, Trini, let's start over. Please tell us one thing you did today."

She had no idea what made her say it.

"Me and four kids from school found out we all have superpowers."

The moment of quiet was profound, June's expression riddled with disbelief and irritation. "What?"

"Cool!" the twins chorused enthusiastically and their mother shouted them down, jumping to her feet to twist and grab something.

"Not cool! Pee in that cup!"

The plastic cup smacked down on the table like a hammer and for a moment, Trini stared at it and then up to her mother.

Once, they had been so close. Time and unwelcome superpowers had turned them into strangers and adversaries.

The indignity of the treatment made Trini boil over, rage setting off every stifled fight-or-flight reflex in her.

"What the hell is wrong with you? I'm not on drugs or something stupid like that and why would you even assume that? I know you hate me, but Jesus, Mom, get--"

The blow came out of nowhere, both of them on their feet and faced off like gladiators. Pain swamping through her bruised head, Trini lay where she had spun and fallen, barely hearing the virulent shouts, the screams of her brothers…

Trini had never been hit in her life. Not like this. This was no tame schoolyard scrap or a swat to the rear as a small child gotten out of control. Her whole head rang with it, the left side of her face was on fire, mouth aching and watering, tasting of copper. 

In a moment of time, in this one blow, she was reduced to a terrified child, afraid of the whole world. A towel hanging from her door became a ghost, the tap of a tree branch at the window, a dark creature, the mother who had been the center of her whole world become a monster.

Only the splintering of wood and the terrified screaming of her brothers broke through the noise in her head. For something monstrous had arrived.

Like an impressive special effect, the foggy, shifting shape was there, but not really there, smoke given life. If not for the twin-flame eyes, a ragged maw of darkness, thick, black claws carving into the dining room walls like power tools, Trini would think she was brain damaged from that hit.

"No!"

Desperately pushing herself up from the floor, Trini wavered before stumbling to put herself in the monster's line of fire. It was not smoke, it had substance like a cloud of ash with a wall of wind behind it, choking and almost substantial. She had to stop what could happen here, stop the terror becoming something so much worse.

And Trini reached deep, took strength from all the hurt inside her and pushed. She pushed like she never had before, a wall of intent that blasted out like an explosion. The command to back off got through, the half-insubstantial smoke she leaned into become ever more solid, every sound in the house hushed to fast, terrified breathing.

"Get me out of here," Trini whispered and it was that harsh plea, just as much as the blast of near-telepathic command, that had Kim collapsing into a near-Human shape, twining an arm around her new friend to lead her away.

It only took moments to stumble upstairs, squint around bleakly at her familiar things, grab her bags, stumble into the kitchen to open the unremarkable can of mixed nuts and empty out the money inside. No one in the dining room had moved, all four of them wide-eyed in frozen terror. 

Trini felt dead inside as she stared at her family for a moment that felt like an eternity, but was mere heartbeats, Kim tugging urgently at her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and the words lingered in the silence long after she was gone.

\----

Everything was a blur, Jason's shout and the cold steel of a pickup truck's bed under her, the bump and vibration of driving, voices and the rattle of a garage door.

She couldn't find it in herself to react even when strong arms scooped her up like a child, Jason's voice talking above her head on his chest.

"I just knew I had to be there. It's been awhile since that… seein' what's gonna happen has been so strong. I barely grabbed a jacket and being barefoot in this weather isn't doing me any favors."

"We can't stay here, can we?" Kim said bleakly as Jason gently set Trini on something soft.

"No, I don't suppose that's safe. But where-- goddamnit Zack!"

The urgent tapping of something on glass had clearly startled the boy, but Trini couldn't bring herself to move.

"Hey guys," Zack's voice said on the heels of a sliding glass door hissing open. "I got here as soon as I could. Feels-your-feel's got a yell on her, huh?" The goofiness gentled as Zack's voice drew near. "Hey, Crazy Girl. I dunno if you can hear me in there right now, but you're not alone. You got us now."

"Yeah, you do," Jason added softly before his tone became more businesslike. "Look, I'm gonna swing past Billy's place to reassure him. Because I'm guessing she called out to all of us that missed that train. We clearly bonded more than we'd thought, even after the bonfire. I'll be back in about fifteen minutes if my knee doesn't give out. Here's the keys in case I don't get back."

"Dude, meet us up at my train car. It's the perfect place to duck out for a few days."

"That's a good idea. I'll go through my camping gear and meet you up there. Take the truck."

Quiet closed in as the trio of voices faded away to their own tasks and Trini was left with the numb silence of her body and the seething insanity in her mind as she relived what had just happened over and over again in her mind.

There would be no going back. She was shattered away from her family as surely as if she'd been shoved off a cliff to die on the rocks below. A part of her had died this night and she would never be the same again.

It could have been minutes, or hours, or a lifetime, before Kim was suddenly crouched beside the couch, her eyes wild and bright. She was gently shaking Trini's shoulder for her attention.

"Trini, I need your help to pull this off, or they're gonna figure out it was me. I can't even remember if you said my name, but if you did, they could trace us here and make it harder for you to disappear. Besides, what kid hasn't wanted to trash their own house, right?"

That finally got through, Trini squinting at her. "What?"

"I need your help to get me pissed off enough to wreck my house. Make it look like it was ransacked by the monster."

"Maybe even a couple other places," Zack added in helpfully. "Make it look random. And there are plenty of places that are empty of people right now. That strip mall over on 12th is mostly 9 to 5 businesses."

"And maybe the boneyard?"

"The place where the dead ships lie!" Zack intoned ponderously and swept his arms out melodramatically. 

A plan. They had a plan. Yeah, Trini could do this.

"Okay, Gandalf," she sassed weakly and forced herself to get up. "We'll go with your plan. I'm half shocked you didn't suggest the school."

"Get me going there and you might not stop me," Kim said with just enough tightness in her voice to indicate that she was only half-kidding.

And so Trini found herself setting aside her own trauma to focus on laying down some desperate groundwork for whatever her future held. After the trio piled a substantial collection of boxes and bags into Jason's truck, Zack stayed behind the wheel, engine running to make a quick getaway. 

Then it was just the two young woman, both terrified but determined.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this," Trini said softly and was surprised by Kim's hands on her shoulders.

"I'm not," Kim said decisively in a voice as weighty as the world. "You're the first person to reach me here," she tapped her forehead. "And here." That hand moved to her heart. "You reached in and made me not feel like a monster. And I never thought I would ever have that again."

Bound by the most insane of circumstances, they slipped away, back in the general direction of Trini's house. In the black of night, their town both settled in around them and yet uneasy with the upsets they didn't understand, Trini felt for that rage she could feel in Kim like a bonfire. It was explosive, barely contained, but she had faced worse. That emotional fire was something she understood all too well, felt it from multitudes of minds all around her, a constant wall of mental noise. It was a big bonfire, a powerful one, but Trini could handle it.

She had to.

Kim tried not to flight it, the rage swamping over her, carefully coaxed at by a force not hers. Trini took the chance of touching her bowed back, rock-hard with tension.

"Trust me."

And Kim exploded into smoke and fire.


	6. Cover Your Tracks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's been awhile! This chapter has sat half done for months as I tried to find a good angle at the second half. I think I finally got the emotional beats where I want them. Next chapter will finally get us to where this little 'verse will begin to knit into the larger 'verse it has always been destined for.

"Hey, Balrog, let's wrap this up before we're caught!" 

Zack's merriment over the whole insane situation was both irritating and grounding. Trini had no idea what to make of him… or Kim for that matter.

Bizarrely, Kim seemed to almost be enjoying herself, letting the rampage-y craziness in her loose. As evidenced by the handful of glass and jewelry that spattered across the hood and windshield of Jason's truck. Trini jumped, but Zack just laughed and continued to taunt out the window.

"For me? But I didn't get you anything!"

As her smoke-self drifted towards the truck like a menacing cloud, Kim reached up to rip down the electrical lines above her, the ensuing rain of sparks making her all the more terrifying. After she'd ransacked her own house to cover her tracks, Kim had allowed herself to be led away by the sweet calm radiating from Trini from the truck. There'd been a few unwanted side trips that had thankfully been contained to a couple fences, a very unlucky tree and a convertible Kim had clearly recognized by the gleeful way she went after it. The upholstery looked like a pack of direwolves had swarmed it, but the dents and scrapes in the steel body were more impressive. Clearly, Kim got strong when she was in full smoke mode.

Luckily, the dark storefront had been close by. Unluckily, it was the now-trashed jewelry store. Oh well, at least the cops would be by fairly quickly to see what the hell had happened and it would add to the confusion the way the teens wanted. Now, if they could just get Kim out of there.

"Come on, Smoke 'n Fire," Trini practically begged. "Just shrink down and get in the truck. We gotta get out of here!"

For a moment, those gleaming pools of fire seethed above the black, silent maw of a jagged mouth, the rage in Kim pushing back against Trini's exhausted control. Zack trusted his new pals even as the indistinct hands of Kim's hulked-out form grabbed the tailgate, claws skittering on the paint, before she began shrinking in on herself. The minute she had one foot secure in the truck bed, Trini was slapping at Zack's shoulder. 

"Go, go, go!"

Zack had a more sensitive hand than either girl would have given him credit for, accelerating evenly away from the carnage and drawing no attention from the arriving black and white unit. Luckily, they were at the edge of the downtown core and that added to their blending in. 

Until Kim was suddenly pressed up to the rear window, her voice urgent.

"Zack, dude, pull over!"

He tried to protest, Trini would give him that, but something had Kim hot and bothered. "Hey, we gotta--"

"No, pull over. If I don't get some calories in me, someone might die tonight and I can't guarantee it would be me."

After seeing what she was capable of, Zack decided to obey, even though he shared a grimace with Trini. Without even waiting for the truck to stop, Kim was hopping out lightly to the pavement and trotting over to the Krispy Kreme donut shop. 

"At least you'll have breakfast," Zack said with a shrug, but Trini wasn't paying attention, her focus where Kim had frozen and alarm was radiating out from her. 

"Stay here," she barked at Zack and scrambled out of the cab.

"But…"

"No, no one else can be seen with me, or you'll get dragged into this shit!"

Bursting into the donut shop, Trini caught the tail end of a sneering insult from none other than the former friend in the cheesecake shot that had wrecked Kim up so badly. With no sense of her own safety, Trini threw herself between the larger girls, giving Amanda a rough shove. The maneuver pressed her back into the firm and soft of Kim and Trini slapped down the reaction she'd like to have. Now was not the time. 

"Hey, back the fuck up!" she shouted, fully prepared to throw it down, no matter the odds.

Though caught off guard, Amanda righted herself with the help of another girl at her back and now they were gearing up to loom. 

"Who the fuck are you?"

Buffeted by the high emotions between the estranged friends, Trini's hostility began ratcheting down. 

"Apparently a better friend than you are."

The pregnant pause was full of enough tangled emotion that a brain didn't have to be actively empathic to pick up on it. Trapped between the two cheerleaders-- some part of her wondering when the hell she lost control of her life-- Trini just wanted them to stand down without having to pressure them.

"It was fucked up all around, okay?" she coaxed. "Everyone's sorry."

For a moment, the standoff was a breathless, crushing tension. Then Amanda scoffed, but her eyes were regretful. "Whatever, Tiny. Enjoy your new pet. Remember, she's damaged goods."

And with a pair of nasty laughs, the cheerleaders were gone.

"Donuts," Trini encouraged Kim quietly, worried the taller girl would start going hazy around the edges again. 

"Yeah, donuts."

And though her voice was faint, Kim obeyed the tugging at her arm. For lack of knowing what else to do, Trini asked the salesdude to give them three of everything, startled when Kim gestured at the stacks of pre-filled boxes nearby. "And three dozen glazed."

"How hungry do you get, Hart?" Trini had to ask, half surprised and half teasing, relishing the wan smile she earned.

"I'll share."

Kim paid the exorbitant bill and had inhaled two glazed donuts down before they were out the door. Three more vanished by the time they were settled back in the truck and she didn't look so frazzled. Zack gratefully chowed down something violently pink that Trini was half convinced had breakfast cereal atop it while she went for something safer in its rich chocolate color. 

"Sugar and starch for the win!" Zack yelled over the wind in the open windows as he drove the red truck away from the chaos. Soon enough they were away from the busier parts of Angel Grove, past the quiet suburbs, out where the poor and forgotten gathered at the fringes. 

There lay the Melody Mobile Home Park in all of its tattered glory. Zack wound through the rows of homes in various states of repair at a perfectly moderate speed to call no undue attention, and pulled up to a specific unit. After a moment, he pulled the truck over to one side and jockeyed it around for a moment. 

"Stay down a sec," he muttered lowly to the girls who took the note of warning in his voice seriously. Noises pinged through the truck's body and the creak of steel springs indicated that Zack had opened the hood. A flashlight played about for a bit and even the empath was starting to wonder what the hell he was waiting for. But the sensation of wariness and worry from the boy was real.

Twenty minutes passed before Zack finally muttered something dire in a lyrical language neither of them knew. The dim light of the porch light barely illuminated him appearing at the side of the truck bed.

"Come on, but keep your head down. I'm pretty sure the nosy old goat next door is down, but I never know how long she keeps her damn nose out of everyone's business, even with it getting late. Slip over the side, c'mon."

It was all cloak and dagger, but the girls did as they were bid. He knew the terrain better than they did. With Kim and Trini crouched down behind the bulk of the vehicle, he rustled around their things, handing down their backpacks and grabbing Trini's big duffel.

"Damn, Crazy Girl, what you got in here, your whole life?"

The bleak look Trini offered stopped Zack's quiet amusement in its tracks, and her voice was barely above a pained whisper. "Yeah, pretty much. Not like I can go back."

Even without the weight of the pain she broadcast, Zack felt horrible. "Shit, Trini, I'm sorry."

It was more than most had offered her and Trini could feel his sincerity. Half on a whim, she reached out and grabbed his forearm to give it a squeeze. It was the first friendly contact she had initiated to any of these freaks that had tumbled into her life and they noted it.

It was the first friendly contact she had initiated in a long, long time.

Patting her hand to acknowledge the contact, Zack broke it gently in handing down one of the boxes Kim had brought. "Stash this stuff in the cab in case it rains."

It took a few minutes to take care of that, Kim grabbing the large duffel and shouldering it despite Trini's weak protests. Once they were ready to head out, Zack's silent worry was a hammer on Trini's perceptions.

"Dude, you should stay. We'll be okay."

For a long moment, he fought her gentle suggestion, Kim staying deliberately silent, her head turned away. Then he nodded and crouched down to whisper urgently at them.

"Okay. Listen, head through the trees, there's a path on the other side. When it starts getting rocky, head north towards the mine. It'll eventually start to flatten out and my old train car is out in the middle of that. There's clouds, but the moon is makin' them glow from behind. Give your eyes a few to fully adjust and you won't even need a flashlight. It you gotta look for something in the car, shine the flash through your shirt to not call attention, 'kay?"

The girls both gave Zack's arm a squeeze and a quiet thank you before they slipped away.

Trini had always liked cats, and like them, she skulked low and quiet, doing her best to keep her load close to her body. Both girls were laden down with bags, but Kim had definitely taken on more than her fair share. Still, neither made a sound past the pad of rubber soles on the ground until the boxy shape of the old train car gleamed dully in the moonlight.

"Home sweet home," Kim muttered and shifted her shoulders uncomfortably under her load. After a moment, her voice brightened. "Y'know, tonight we gave birth to an urban legend. Well, urban is maybe a strong word for this shitty little town, but still. Since you have been seen with me and got attacked, and it got my ex to, then my place, and I enjoyed trashing Amanda's car, do you think that'll make her more paranoid?"

The attempt at sounding gleeful fell flat. Frankly, Kim just sounded sad. Trini just gave her arm a squeeze. Was she turning into one of those touchy-feely people suddenly? Ick. Worse, she found herself rambling to fill up the suffocating quiet around them.

"Y'know, back there, at the house? You sorta reminded me of He Who Shall Not Be Named in the Chamber of Secrets, when he was all shifting smoke. Only, y'know, not evil. Just scary."

There was something deeper than the statement that gleamed in Trini's moonlit eyes.

"I can handle your monster, Hart."

Back before this newest chapter of their adventure had started, Kim had noticed the bruises on the smaller girl's face. It didn't take a jock familiar with getting banged up to recognize a violent backhand to the face. The imprint of knuckles and fingers were a dead giveaway. And it was no small hand that had done it, the livid marks taking up the whole side of Trini's head. As fast as Kim had monstered-out and raced to the scene of the crime, it could have only been one of her folks.

The knowledge left a sour taste in her mouth and belly.

Sure, her folks were off doing their own thing more often than not, leaving their only child to take care of herself, but they'd never hit her. 

Both of them jumped at a flicker of a human shape as they grew near the train car, relieved when Jason greeted them. "Hey guys, good to see you. I got you all set up to lay low for a couple days. I'm gonna head home before I'm missed, to help maintain your cover, but I look forward to hearing what you all did because the whole damn town is wound up."

Kim was shocked to find herself chuckling as she set down the bags in her hands and let Jason pull away the big duffel on her back. When she caught Trini's eye, the smaller girl seemed trapped by the little curl of smile.

"Yeah, it was an adventure."


	7. A New Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning that the author is incorporating the DC television verse as a sub-plot in this story. This whole verse has always been intended to fit into a much larger verse that I have been working on for the better part of 2 years. That said, I also intend this piece to be accessible as a stand-alone for those not invested in the other material.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on a roll here! If I keep this up, the piece will be done and soon.

Exhausted, the girls poked around their makeshift campsite, impressed with what Jason had managed to drag out. Thankfully, he also proved to be the sort to think ahead as the sky began to patter down rain and the tent was set up inside the car. With the rain came colder temperatures on top of already being chilled from the night and the girls gratefully went to the tent and looked around with shielded flashlights.

It was a proper little camp with a big water jug and a weird flimsy-looking toilet contraption standing on three legs… with a plastic bag held open inside of it. When they reluctantly peeked inside, there was a layer of small white pellets on the bottom.

"Oh, hey," Kim said admiringly. "It's the same sorta stuff that's in a disposable diaper." When Trini looked at her incredulously, she just shrugged. "Babysitting."

There was a bucket with a tight-fitting lid and prepackaged food and a pair of sleeping bags tossed into the tent. Jason had even managed to drag out a couple of flimsy lounge chairs with the loud, ratcheting joints. An improvement over the uneven floor of the decrepit train car. 

Wearily, Kim and Trini set up the chairs and sleeping bags before kicking off shoes and climbing into the warm sacks.

Beyond the patter of light rain, the night was eerily silent, the city far beyond hearing. It felt like just the two of them, Kim's rage quieted by her draining evening and the presence of her new friend and Trini comforted in turn by the calm between them.

Nearly asleep, Trini startled awake when Kim rustled into motion beside her and the rattletrap lounge chair slid to the side. With the chairs now touching, Kim curled up on her side, wiggling around until she could nestle her head against Trini's ear.

Comforted by the closeness neither expected nor really understood, they fell into the succor of black sleep.

It could have been hours or days later that Trini woke with a snort, cuddled and cozy with the sun bright outside her room.

Wait… not her room.

It all came crashing back to her.

The ratty old train car around her being empty only made it worse. Had Kim ditched out on her so soon? Did the unexpected cuddles mean nothing?

Then she heard the dusty thump of footfalls headed her way. Fast.

That couldn't be good.

Even as Trini fought her way out of the enveloping sleeping bag, Kim appeared with a flying leap and crouch.

"There are cops down in the mine! And a couple of them are so headed this way!"

She wasn't panicked quite yet, but Trini was getting close. She couldn't go home, she really couldn't, no matter how much she wanted to.

Now, she had to find out just how well she could hide.

"Um… fuck, okay, look, this thing already looks pretty lived in, right?" Desperately looking at Kim for reassurance, she got a nod and rambled on. "If we stash most of the stuff and scatter a few things, it should look lived in and deserted."

"And us?"

"There's a reason you didn't notice me for a whole school year, Hart."

Thankfully, the old train car had once been a caboose, set up for basic living. There was a discrete corner for Trini's big duffel, a bench where their smaller bags went, the collapsed tent crumbled messily around them as camouflage. 

And one small table with bench seating bolted to the floor, rickety with age, providing scant shadows that would have to do. 

In her isolation from the noise of other's emotions, Trini could feel the cops drawing near. They were bored and tired and annoyed, all of which would work in her favor.

"Get under the table and scrunch up," she hissed at Kim, daring to sneak a peek out a shattered window. They had a couple minutes, tops. With a dexterity at odds with her muscular five and a half foot frame, Kim wedged herself into the narrow space between the post and the wall.

She startled when Trini was right behind her, half clambering into her lap and half wrapped around her head and shoulders. Even as the old caboose shuddered lightly at the weight of a guest, Kim couldn't help but notice that for a tiny little thing, Trini had some curves on her. Particularly the face full of tits she now had.

"Trust me," Trini whispered, feather soft into Kim's scalp and reached deep for calm even as shadows flickered around the car.

And what else could Kim do? This cute and nice stranger had been the best thing to stumble into her hellish life. So she breathed deep, reached for the iron calm of an athlete used to performing, and did her best to just give up control of the situation.

Trini felt the surrender of Kim's strong body, slapped down her gay as best she could, and reached out with her superpower to brush against the cop's mind. He was a briar patch of annoyance, exhaustion and more constant, slow-burn fear than Trini would have ever guessed. 

"This thing is empty," the cop called out, making the girls twitch nervously. "But someone's been here recently. Like last night recently. Left in a hurry too."

"Surprised the whole thing ain't full of used condoms and crack pipes. Damn kids," the cop second cop called out from the doorway and the stink of a cigarette floated through the air. 

Trini leaned on their boredom and impatience, did her best to blunt off the sharpest fear that plagued both men. It was no easy task, these were professionals taught skills in observation and self-control. Well, there were dark corners of the other cop's mind that scared her, but now was not the time.

Too much pressure would make them wonder why they felt so weird, too little would bring those heavy shoes close enough to possibly spy them in their shitty hiding spot.

The shoes stopped not five feet from them, the cop's breathing loud in the quiet. Even the burning crackle of the lit cigarette could be heard. It was nerve-wracking. If the man crouched down to poke at something, he would so see them, why weren't they just leaving already?

Trini's control flickered and even from the knees down, she could see how her own fear made the cop stiffen in some ephemeral alarm he couldn't put his finger on. Leather creaked and the floorboards crackled as his weight shifted and they were so doomed…

"Hey!" the second cop called out and they were suddenly in motion. "There's a kid across this fucking rock garden. Come on! I gotta few questions for him." With a flurry of footfalls, they raced off. With a distant blast of gleeful alarm, Zack fled back the way he'd come.

"And he calls me crazy," Trini muttered, but was so grateful to him in that moment. When Kim spoke, she nearly jumped clean out of her skin.

"We good? 'Cause you're nervous, but it's fading."

Trying to pull away from the inadvertently intimate embrace, Trini only succeeded in cracking her already aching head into the underside of the table. The groan of pain got past her clenched teeth, but was rewarded with gentle hands cradling her skull.

"Hey, how's your head. Looks like you dropped yourself on it."

The seemingly blasé way Kim asked the question, impossibly, made Trini smile. 

"Something like that."

"I shoulda had you on concussion protocols yesterday, sorry about that."

Head cradled in Kim's strong hands, Trini found herself relaxing, despite the bright flare of gay panic. 

"So what do we do now?"

It was a good question and one that Trini didn't really have an answer for. "That was Zack that distracted the cops, but I have no idea if anyone will come back. I can feel anyone coming, but… I gotta be paying attention…"

Paying attention or even just staying awake were becoming difficult the more Kim caressed over her aching skull.

"Better?" she whispered and Trini hummed a little drunkenly. "If you slither out, we can get something to eat and figure out what we do next."

Somewhat limply, Trini did indeed slither away from the welcome heat of the cuddle. With some fumbling and embarrassed awkwardness, they used the weird toilet, rinsed hands with a splash of tepid water from the plastic jug, and poked through the food.

The quiet was surprisingly easy, the comfort of a shared trauma that had bonded together far more disparate people than a couple of teens in over their heads.

When Kim said she was going to settle in with a book and dragged her lounge chair over to the doorway, Trini settled in beside her, wanting the closeness. She never made a sound, never asked for any solace to her aching body and heart. Still, she couldn't quite doze off until she felt that now-familiar hand, capable of such violent destruction, pet gently over her hair.

Clearer skies saw the girls on the roof of the caboose as evening closed around a long, wearying day.

"So, what's your last name?"

After a slow barrage of mundane questions from a very bored Kim, Trini had been expecting the interrogation to get more personal. As much as a huge part of her loathed the sharing, it felt oddly natural with this ally.

"Kwan."

Even in the dim light, Kim's face was incredulous. "How is your last name Kwan?"

It was a reaction Trini was long accustomed to as she looked far more like a Gomez than a Kwan.

"My dad is adopted."

"Oh. That's cool."

"It's weird, but just like my dad's adopted folks look nothing like him, I never thought I looked anything like him He's mostly middle-eastern and my brothers look it… but I don't." Horrified by her rambling on, Trini sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. "There's secrets in my family, I don't know how many, and it makes me wonder what else I don't know, y'know?"

Kim mimicked her posture and they both soaked up the quietness around them.

"I was a surprise," Kim finally said tightly. "Like, seriously a surprise. My sister was already married and out of the house, and my brother was halfway through high school. By the time I was really aware of him, he was off to college and never came back except to visit. My folks are busy. A lot. And the older I get, the less I see them." The little flash of smile was melancholy. "You and the guys? You, I dunno, make me feel grounded in a way that makes me feel real. I can't bury myself in cheerleading or anything ordinary anymore, hell, I don't even know what I'm going to do about school, or even going back home."

The memory of the deadly cloud she would become with the rage unleashed, rendered the pair quiet until Trini spoke up quietly. "How did you get there so fast? To my house?"

Rubbing her face with both hands, Kim raked her hands through her hair and sighed explosively. It was the closest Trini had felt the fire in her all day, but it was a distant warning.

"Y'know, I don't actually have a clue. After I…" Kim had to pause a moment to swallow hard, her voice low and hoarse. "After I attacked Ty, the same thing happened. Everything sorta went black and I found myself back home, staring at my hands. And the blood…"

The last words were barely a whisper as she stared at her hands. The flicker of emotions caught Trini's attention even as she bumped shoulders with her new pal. Fortunately, these were no strangers, but the guys approaching in the evening gloom.

"Well, we freaks gotta stick together," she called out and Billy's voice wafted across the distance as he followed Jason. 

"Metahumans," he stated and Kim jumped in surprise, her head whipping around. "We're Metahumans. That's the proper term. I've been doing some more research now that I know I'm not the only one. In fact, from what I can glean, there are more of us than we could have dreamed."

They were approaching from a completely different direction than usual and quickly arrived at the old caboose.

"More of us?" Trini asked and peered over the edge of the roof. "How do you mean?"

With a clatter of sound, the guys climbed up, Jason and Zack conspicuously quiet as they handed over sacks and a cooler. It was stuffed with picnic food and drinks, the fried chicken still warm. They dug in hungrily while Billy rambled on.

"It's actually really strange how few people know about Metahumans, considering the things that we can do. Some powers are inborn, but many of them don't appear until puberty, which clearly happened to all of us. There was a really interesting article theorizing that the Metahuman gene is carried on the X chromosome, which makes sense because the Y chromosome is a weaker one, and that should result in far more female Metahumans, so we sort of upset the average. And it's also odd that there are five of us and so close in age, because the Human mutation resulting in Metahuman is highly unusual, somewhere between one in five hundred thousand to one in one million in the general population, depending on what you're reading. I wonder if there was something that happened that was some sort of trigger, but that doesn't explain you, Trini, since you came from outside Angel Grove. The population numbers are much higher in the urban centers, same as the alien population."

"That's right, I forget that Superman and Supergirl are aliens," Kim mused thoughtfully. "Are there a lot of them? Aliens, I mean."

"I didn't get a lot of actual numbers, but there are a lot of attacks on National City as well as the New York-Gotham metropolitan area. Metropolis has been pretty quiet since Lex Luthor was finally apprehended. I wonder if he was a Metahuman, since he was so smart and hard to capture. What?"

All four of the other teens stared at Billy in something like terror.

"I'm not sure I like the idea that people would compare us to him," Kim managed to say, her voice tense. "Aren't regular people gonna be scared enough of us?"

Everyone's appetite dried up after that.


	8. A Long Journey Home

Feeling exposed on the open rock field and with no rain on the horizon, the teens packed everything up and headed for the trees. Many hands made for light work and they quickly found a cluster of trees and undergrowth that would completely hide the tent and gear. Better, it wasn't far from the natural pool where Jason and Kim had met days ago, Trini overhearing the conversation that had led her here.

Had it really only been four days?

Four cycles of sun and moon since Kim had talked so urgently about getting out of this town, since the teens had bonded over poor choices, running from getting caught, gotten winged by a train.

There was a deep hollow near camp that would funnel water to the pool in rainy weather that sheltered a comforting fire Jason and Zack whipped up.

"So, I guess you can't go home," Billy finally broke the quiet amongst them, rife with mixed emotions. The flinch that rattled Trini's body was echoed in the twist of her mouth and wave of pain that each of them felt.

"No, I guess I can't."

"What can we do to help?"

How Trini wanted to rage at them, run them off so that she could just fade away from the world until it wore her down into nothing. But the soft wall of their sincere want to help was something she couldn't ignore.

"I--," her voice cracked with strain and she paused to swallow hard to try and calm her stress. A surprisingly relaxed Kim handed over a bottle that a hard swig of revealed something at least mildly alcoholic. The balm was a welcome one. "I have an aunt out there somewhere, who got tossed out for being… problematic."

They all remembered things heavily implied around a different bonfire and nodded quietly.

"It was around the same time my grampa stopped talking to his sister, and that can't be a coincidence. So I'm hoping she'll be a cool aunt too, because I don't know where else to go."

Billy was digging a laptop out of his bag before her voice faded. "Do you have a name? Any details at all?"

He looked at her with open expectancy and Trini was heartened by his willingness. Clearing her throat, she sat forward. "Um, Maggie Sawyer. That's all I got. Should be about thirty-two, same coloring as me, seemed like she was on the short side too from the old pictures I have."

Nodding, Billy began tapping at the computer and Trini was too curious to resist standing to pad over and stand beside him. Windows and lines of text were flashing by much faster than his hands were moving and she marveled at the sci fi of it all. 

"The satellite uplink is kinda slow out here, but I'll get you the information. There's at least fifty Maggie Sawyers I can find, so let's start narrowing it down…"

"How the hell did you get an off the shelf lappie to talk to a satellite?"

Billy only smirked at Kim's amazement. "You'd be amazed what I can get machines to do."

Pictures flashed by, some of them uncomfortable as they were clearly meant to be private. Weddings and kids, candid and posed, it was all there in the strangers that bore the name Trini needed.

"Billy! Wait, go back," she instructed urgently, leaning over his shoulder, completely missing how he leaned away from her invading his space.

"Okay. Oh, sorry, my instructions should have picked up on this one, she fits all of your criteria, and…"

Trini stared at the screen, Billy's voice fading from her attention. It wasn't a great picture, a cluster of adults in black windbreakers around posing for a picture in front of a modern city building. Reaching out, she took the computer from Billy's hands so that she could get a really good look, toggling it to zoom in.

The woman was small, wiry, brown skinned with a head full of lush black hair. That could make her fit, but lots of people fit that description. But there was something in her smile, wide and dimply, that twanged a chord in Trini.

She'd seen that smile before.

Grampa had that smile when he wasn't angry and sad, but it was different in his rounder face. He'd passed it down to his eldest daughter, who used to smile a lot, and in her leaner face… it looked a lot like this stranger's.

Enraptured by the possibility that this could be her missing aunt, sent away in disgrace for being like Trini was, she traced the pretty face and felt hope choke her throat and flood her eyes. Handing back the computer, she rushed for her beloved backpack and pulled out the old lunchbox and the forbidden pictures, shuffling them until she found the best one of a small June and Maggie, arm in arm, grinning like idiots, baked dark in the summer sun, carefree and happy.

When she returned to Billy, the others had clustered around the computer, Zack's flashlight illuminated the old photo held beside the picture on the laptop's screen.

"Yeah, Billy," Trini managed to say wetly and her smile grew through her tears. "Yeah, I think this just might be her."

Somehow, Billy sent the photo to Jason's phone and he willingly handed it to Trini so that she could retreat to her seat and stare and stare. When a second photo popped up, she jumped. It was a better photo, a clearly staged headshot against a plain background with a pair of flags as company.

"She's a cop," Trini said faintly, hope dashed by the devastation of the black uniform and shiny silver badge. But there was more, Trini's voice rising. "Gotham? I can't get all the way to fucking Gotham!"

Billy was still tapping away at the computer, calm and excited despite Trini's alarm. "Wait, she transferred to… oh! National City. That's much easier. Wait, there's more. She's a detective and belongs to a special unit called… the Science Police."

"Stupid name," Zack said sagely and nodded at their tech head pal. "Go on."

"Oh, the Science Police deal with, oh hey! Alien and Metahuman crimes!"

Hope flared back to life, the whole gang could feel it.

"So she should be sympathetic, right?"

There was a brittleness to the hope Trini broadcast desperately and Kim reached out to grab her knee. "I got your back, Didi."

The tease about her name got the wisp of a smile she was after.

They agreed an extra day of the girls lying low was a good idea and the guys could do some groundwork for them. Trini squirmed in Jason's hug, but didn't shove him off. She even initiated high-fives with Zack and Billy both. Then it was just the two of them at the fire, burned down to fitful flickers and hot coals.

"You've been really calm," Trini noted into the quiet and could barely see Kim's smile in the dimness.

"Weird, right? Having a focus helps. And being around you. Even when you're stressed, you're trying to be calm and I can feel it."

And somehow, that brought Trini some peace too.

After another day of lying low, the pair were getting a little stir crazy, waiting for night and getting clear of Angel Grove. They packed everything up, squirreling away the camping gear for Jason to retrieve when things calmed down. Then it was just a matter of waiting until the brush of emotion alerted Trini to get them in motion.

Jason nearly jumped clean out of his joggers when they materialized out of the gloom to meet him. "Christ, damn superpowers only work when they want to. So, you guys are the stuff of urban legend now, because some of the stories circulating are pretty wild. Here, let me carrying something and let's get moving."

The moon continued to favor the beleaguered teens, providing enough light that even the trees couldn't render them blind. After two days in the wild, the electric lights of town, fences and cars and the barking of dogs, it all felt foreign. Down a street of empty housing lots that every town seemed to have, was Jason's truck.

"Zack said he'd meet us here. Said something about a tow truck. I thought it wise to not ask questions."

That actually made Trini huff out a chuckle. Though she stifled that down upon the arrival of a high set of headlights, causing the girls to scramble behind the truck.

"Need a lift?" Zack stage-whispered over the big diesel engine and laughed as he drove to the end of the empty cul-de-sac to turn his new wheels around.

"Did he seriously steal a tow truck?" Kim marveled. "Damn, Feels-your-feel, you have some mojo."

Kim and Zack grumbled and giggled over the mechanics of the towing rig while Jason and Trini got personal belongs sorted and lashed down under a tarp. "No point in calling attention to yourself with an unsecured load," he said cheerfully. When they finished, Jason pulled Trini aside while the other two hoisted and secured the red truck. "Here, Billy asked me to give this to you."

It was a cell phone, shiny and new. Power cord and all.

"This will let you stay in touch and he can send you anything else he learns about your aunt."

The quiet gratitude of Trini's unexpected grip on his arm stopped Jason's turning away. "Thanks, for everything. Tell Billy too?"

"I will. Promise." Gripping her fingers for a moment, he gave her a melancholy smile. "Oh, and if the button flashes red? Smash the phone, because someone figured us out. When you get somewhere safe, don't forget about the rest of us freaks, huh?"

By the time Trini and Kim squeezed themselves down into the foot wells of the truck, Jason had already faded away into the shadows.

Twenty minutes into a rough ride against the steel body of the pickup truck made the teens wish they had grabbed a couple more layers.

"So, you want the first leg of our daring escape?" Kim asked suddenly into the quiet and Trini winced.

"About that. I don't have my license. Honestly, the only reason I passed the driver's safety course is that I leaned on my trainer. It's hard to concentrate when the guy is so irritated that I couldn't concentrate. I didn't even ask my folks about it."

The catch in her voice spoke as eloquently as the wave of feeling from the hurting empath. Heads pressed together, the young women breathed together until the tow truck came to a halt and there was the slam of a door. A moment later, the pickup began lowering and Kim carefully unwound herself to peer out.

"Looks clear. C'mon."

Climbing out to stretch and stomp feeling back into their legs, Trini and Kim gave Zack a hand removing the safety straps from the pickup's tires. With bouncy athleticism, he pulled the tow truck forward to release the forks from the smaller truck, before pulling the lever that stowed the towing rig up. They were in some quiet little gravel lot just a bit from the nearby road and its streetlamps.

"You guys good then?" Zack asked. "Another twenty miles and you'll be in Midvale. You can cut east to the five freeway from there and make good time south."

"Good deal. You'll be okay?"

Kim's concern brought of the flash of white teeth in the dimness. "Yeah. I'll drive this thing around a little, get some fast food to leave some wrappers laying around. Make it look a joyride. It'll be fine. Drive carefully and don't call attention to yourself and you'll be fine. Let us know you made it, okay?"

His grin was fonder for Trini and he held out a loose fist for her to bump her own against. "Take care of yourself, crazy girl. We got your back."

"Later, homeboy," she managed to say around the lump in her throat and roughly scrubbed away a few tears. She'd just made these friends, dammit! She didn't want to give them up yet!

Then the noisy tow truck roared away in a cloud of diesel stink and they were truly alone.


	9. Found You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have done my best to keep the crossover simple for those of you reading only for the Power Rangers. This tale was always intended to mesh in with my gigantic Supergirl-verse series entitled 'Pyramid'. This part was intended that you can stop reading here if you like, because the continuing tale will make little sense without the gargantuan backstory behind it. 
> 
> Thank you for joining me on the ride.

In a sober quiet, Kim and Trini returned to the red truck's cab and it started up with a twist of the key.

"They even filled the damn tank," Kim marveled softly and flicked the headlamps to their nighttime setting before easing over the gravel and onto the narrow road.

In the quiet of the early night, they made good time to Midvale and out to the great freeway that ran from Canada to Mexico, bisecting California down the middle-ish. They made it all the way to Bakersfield and the foot of the great mountain range that separated central California from the National City basin. It was there that Kim threw in the towel with a groan.

"I need some sleep and a decent meal in me. I'd just about sell an internal organ for a shower, but I don't see how we'd pull that off." Kim's smile was wan as she aimed the vehicle at a sprawling, well-lit truck stop. "Perfect. No one will look at us twice here."

Close to the business parts of the truck stop, but not quite at the main foot traffic points, Kim parked and turned the engine off with a groan. "Not used to these road trips."

Trini's broadcast remorse was as eloquent as her quiet words. "You shouldn't have gotten dragged into this."

The huff of a laugh carried humor and despair in equal measure. "While I appreciate the thought, Trin, my running away was inevitable. How the fuck am I supposed to be around normal people?"

Affectionately slapping Trini's leg, Kim hopped out of the truck and stretched luxuriously, making all sorts of funny and borderline sexy noises.

"I'm gonna visit the restroom and be right back."

With a minimum of pit stop and snack, Kim flopped out onto the bench seat, knees bent in the cramped space. Trini made no comment to the weight of her pal's head in her lap, merely kept her attention on the phone Billy had sent along for them.

Time passed there in the busy lake of concrete full of every manner of car and truck. The background fog of feeling of the minds around Trini were exhausted and focused on where they needed to be, mixed with impatience and the longing to be elsewhere. The flickers of dark intent flickered here and there like the shapes of sharks in a gloomy sea. 

It was nothing she didn't deal with on the regular, but it was a particularly potent brew of the stuff. Clearly, a truck stop on one of the largest roads in America was not humanity's best showing.

Still, the important part was that Kim slept, limp and oblivious to the malaise around her. Whenever she felt something too close, too focused, she broadcast out her 'don't notice me' to keep curious eyes from the truck and the valuables it carried.

By the time about four in the morning rolled around, Trini was trembling with cold and exhaustion, her eyes burning. Kim woke suddenly, snorting to life and wearily sitting up.

"Thanks for watching over me. Let me grab something to eat and we'll get going."

When they were settled in and ready to continue their journey, it said much that Trini didn't even fight Kim's gentle hand pressing her lie out and settle her head in her lap. Comforted by the warmth and the flexing muscles of Kim's thigh, Trini willingly let sleep pull her under.

 

\----

Maggie loved being a cop. Yes, it was dangerous and often full of drudgery, but the rewards were worth it. At the moment she was so sick of paperwork she wanted to scream, but there was no rushing a broken leg. Soon she would be back at her calling, to protect her streets and all those that lived here.

National City had a completely different vibe to it than grimy Gotham, but the shadows were every bit as deep and dark. If anything, Gotham's evils were a more honest breed than the ills that thrived just out of the reach of the California sunshine. Still, she had grown to love this place and the life she still felt as though she'd tripped and fallen into

Oh, her work she'd earned fair and square, with old-fashioned hard work and a bit of luck. Her personal life was something altogether different. There were days, on a regular basis if she were honest, where she felt like a cryptid in this life, the dirt ordinary in a mixed salad of extraordinary, if not downright out of this world.

All because of one pushy, and devastatingly attractive, fed.

It felt weird and disconnected to look back on her history with Alex now. They'd brushed right up to the line of 'us' and then found something completely different. And yet, somehow, almost impossibly, Maggie had not just ended up with maybe the best friend she'd ever had… but a whole family. 

It was the sort of safety net that was a foreign land to her.

Maggie might have serious difficulty articulating her past to her intimates, but the scars still bit plenty deep. The memory of Papa turning on her, rendered a monster in an instant, the mute helplessness of her mother, her sister's cold terror, Aunt Maria's sad acceptance, none of it had faded. 

Survival was all well and good, but sometimes her teenage self, still trapped in that moment in time, longed for what she had been so brutally torn from.

Memories faded back to their shadowy recesses as the grimy neighborhood around her became familiar. Paying the Lyft driver and absently thanking the guy, Maggie grabbed her bags and gingerly stepped out onto the warm afternoon. Go her, she wasn't unbearable sore today. Good. That meant she both behaved herself on the limited walking and that she was continuing to heal.

With the construction crews at her second job waking her at insane hours anyway, Maggie had talked her captain into letting her work seven to three. That also got her home in time every day to check in with the day crews to see how their shift had gone.

She loved coming home to the old Hudson car factory, despite the shitty neighborhood at the fringes of Skid Row. It was a beautiful masonry building that had survived the ravages of time, pollution and the shaky ground of National City for nearly one hundred years. And with the intense construction going on in every nook and cranny, the thing might stand for another hundred years.

In exchange for living on the premises while the refit was going on, Maggie had a cushy RV to live in that was honestly bigger than the apartment she didn't even miss, and an airy condo to kit out the way she wanted once everything was done.

The bulk of the ground floor was parking garage, now a staging area for the construction and a peek in revealed it to be mostly empty. So Maggie went to the elevator and headed up to the top where the crews had been yesterday.

Maggie noticed immediately how the crew noted her and started whispering among themselves. In her line of work, things like that could get her killed and her cop instincts were on red alert by the time she found the foreman.

"Something happen today that I should know about?" she asked calmly enough, but the sharp edge of warning was clear.

She startled at the interruption and then nodded. "Yeah, late this morning a couple of kids showed up here, asking about you. Rabbited in a panic once we told them you wouldn't be back until later. They were scared, but not dangerous, and I have no idea how I know that, but I felt it, clear as day."

Intrigued, Maggie nodded and kept her voice modulated. "Can you tell me what they looked like?"

She started walking towards the north corner of the building, where the distinctive forty-five degree angle overlooked the streets below. "I'll do you one better. They came back a few hours ago and have been keeping their heads down. Can't miss that trashed truck they showed up in. That's it, about a block down, the red one."

There was no mistaking the beat-up pickup, clearly in a recent accident where it had been rolled. Several times by the look of it. If she went out the side door along the long side of the building, they'd never see her coming.

Distractedly thanking the foreman, Maggie headed back down, passing through the garage and stepping onto the less busy side street. She angled her approach so that she could come up on the side door from behind, watch the body language of the two occupants. Both long-haired, the taller one in a messy bob that reminded her of Alex's loose, wavy curls.

"You wanted to see me?"

Regrettably, Maggie scared the shit out of them both. For an instant she could see a sweet, round face, dark eyes wide, before the door flew open and a small body leapt out as the truck rocked and the roof dented outward before it peeled open with the squeal of rending steel. 

Scrabbling for her gun had Maggie sprawling to the dirty city sidewalk as… something clawed its way out of the hole in the roof. Some dispassionate part of her mind noted that it was a cloud of particulate in a rough, humanoid shape. Shifting and swirling, it turned a pair of flaming eyes towards her, a jagged mouth shape open in a silent roar.

The small teenager rolled to her feet to plant herself between the truck and Maggie. "Stop it!" she yelled at it, voice high and not at all intimidating, yet Maggie found herself frozen. "Dammit Kim! You've kept your shit together this whole insane trip! Don't freak out on me now!"

The monster paused, a terrifying cloud nearly as large as the truck it crouched on.

"I swear to god if you aren’t solid in the next five seconds…"

And damned if the monster didn't start shrinking and getting more solid. Still, Maggie couldn't help but be grateful for the peculiar ripple in the ground beneath her that meant that a certain Kryptonian had made a dramatic landing behind her. The monster froze as Kara's familiar voice said, "I was in the vicinity, Detective. Is everything all right here?"

In less charged circumstances, the way the teen gawked at the superhero would be cute, but her pal was still something a little unworldly for Maggie to relax. With that effortless strength, Kara scooped a hand under an elbow and prodded at the small of Maggie's back to get her to shaky feet. 

"Hey, SG. I think they're okay now, but damned if I know what's going on."

The disorienting sensation of awe didn't fit the small act of helpfulness, and didn't feel quite like hers. Then Maggie remembered the foreman's words.

_"I have no idea how I know that, but I felt it, clear as day."_

Not the figure on hands and knees on the hood of the truck, still inky black but human sized and shape. There was a flash of pink and black, of warm Human skin, as the girl slid off the truck and collapsed to the ground. With effort, the smaller girl managed to stumble to her feet and go her friend, Maggie and Supergirl following.

"They're definitely Human. Are they yours, Detective Sawyer?" Kara asked quietly where she loomed protectively at Maggie's shoulder.

"With that display of smoke and fire, yeah, I'd say they're definitely mine." Curious, but feeling safer with Kara at her back, Maggie stepped closer to the teens. The larger of the two, Kim, huddled against her companion, no hint at all of the cloud of smoke and fire she'd been moments ago. Relief and fear beat against her willpower like an almost physical sensation and it was the damnest sensation. "You came looking for me specifically. Spill."

"Metahuman," the smaller girl said, her voice hoarse. "That's what our pal called us."

"That fits the clues so far."

"And, yeah, we were looking for you."

Maggie tried to wait the kid out, but got distracted at the way the girl stared at her. There was something… hungry in her dark eyes, but not in a weird way. Desperate, maybe. She had no idea who she was… but there was a nagging sense of familiarity that Maggie couldn't place. When she did speak into the charged quiet, her voice was hesitant. "Do we know each other?"

"No, but we should."

Maggie didn't get completely flummoxed often, but this baby-faced stranger had managed it. But even as suspicions began yapping in her head, the kid spoke up again, her voice shaking.

"You don't look anything like my mom. But I can sorta see how you look like Gramma Maria." 

And it all clicked into place. 

Aunt Maria, named after her late mother of course, had taken in Maggie after her brother had turned on his younger child. She was a black sheep of sorts herself, mostly estranged but still able to get basic information on the larger family. She had never meant for Maggie to overhear the conversation with a cousin where they gossiped about June having turned up pregnant at barely seventeen.

Yet June had been allowed to stay.

"Are…" Maggie's voice failed her for a moment. "Are you Junie's kid?"

That finally cracked the kid, her big, dark eyes welling up with tears and her misery a foghorn, impossibly strong between Maggie's ears. And something in her responded in ways she never would have expected, a weirdly maternal rush of emotion to protect this poor little waif and her friend who Maggie would bet was more. Or could be.

"Hey, hey," she soothed gently, overly aware of too many prying eyes drawn to yet another dramatic day on the streets of National City. "You two have done an amazing job of keeping yourselves safe. I admire that, I really do. But you can set the burden down for a while, I'm here now, we all are. C'mere."

And despite their being strangers, the teens stood and crept into Maggie's open arms to allow themselves to be held, shaking and breathing hard with the effort of not completely falling apart.

"I got you. You're not alone, either of you. Just breathe."

And history repeated itself once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random IM note:  
> Shatterpath: it amuses ill (theillogicalthinker) and I greatly that Kimmie is the tank character of her group  
> Geekystorytelling: I like that. I like that it’s a female whose in that position. For once  
> Shatterpath: damn right!


End file.
